in the jungle all you hear is screams.

it is near three in the morning and until recently there was a continuous rasping breathing noise not unlike the sound darth vader makes when he breathes.it was in fact far off howler monkeys screaming their little lungs off. from hearing the evening soiree's of the coyotes in america and not forgetting the ever present cicada squeaks we have now come to a place that has a new sound or two. as well as the nightly heavy breathing there are also several very cute geckos living throughout the house that every now and then find something funny or maybe too rude and bleat out a little sqeuaky chirpping laugh or screech of annoyance. these little fellers are known as ceiling prawns by the family, due to their small size but when drinking tea or leaving tea for a few minutes they employ the use of prawn-shields that will deflect all matter flung by the geckos, in much the same way monkeys do. still they are gorgeous little guys. there is also a resident teenage iguana that pulls himself round the eaves in a most clumsy manner,i think that he may have some gecko friends and that they are too polite to tell him he really isn't a ceiling walker but more of a tree clinger. he rasps his body over the eaves between the roof and occasionally jumps to the next beam with a large thump. he makes no other noises.
as well as all the reptiles there are many beady eyes that shine in the night. if you wear a headlamp torch and walk around the garden at night there are loads of unblinking little eyes watching you.on closer inspection these turn out to be the big eyes of thousands of little and large spiders. and don't worry sis, these guys are cannibals, they keep eating their own! now after that scarey(to some) image.each evening as it turns dark (and it really does TURN dark here, not much of a twilight) the trees light up with a few blinking green l.e.d.'s. that is to say, if you look closer you see that there are tiny little bugs shining as bright as they can or putting on their lights for night driving. the don't stop for long.hopping from one blade of grass to the next and stopping every now and then at a high vantage point on a bush. i caught one when it was in a bush and they look like a little earwig with no pincers and a whitish bum that slowly builds up a spark and then- whoosh!! lights up and starts again. i don't know how many you would need to make a bulb though.
oooh! yesterday we saw a few of the smaller toucans in the tree over the shop. they were nibbling on an epiphyte up in the branches of the tree that grows through the shop. and then they flew right over us as we looked on and they jumped around on the breadfruit trees for a bit too.
today zee went swimming in the river and saw no crocs. they stay upstream apparently. and we dug a pit for the family garden. while digging the pit i had an ulterior motive, there be clay in that thar pit. fine white china clay. now i didn't go deep enough to get to the pure white stuff but i did get some lovely white clay with a marbling of gorgeous orange and after processing it is slighty greyish rather than white. should keep me out of trouble.
once the pit was dug out we filled it with old jack bean stalks and compost that has not yet broken down then covered it all up with earth again. zee has been reading a great book called fertility gardening which is about making the soil strong for growing. i just follow orders.
breadfruit by the way is only one of the few things growing here.
coconuts, ricardo(a red condiment kind of thing. the maya use it as face paint stuff too), starfruit, dragonfruit, several different kinds of banana some of which taste like apples, grenadella, loofahs growing around the outside of the house as well as a perrenial apple shaped purple cucumber. i am sure there ismore to be listed but that is the lot for the moment.

have a happy christmas and a happy new year back in the old country and enjoy the turkey, ham and all the trimmings!